Characterising 20th Century military command centres

English Heritage summaries 2005/2006

Background

The requirement for this study has emerged over the last year or so, partly through the Ministry of Defence vacating a number of wartime and earlier command centres, and through heritage protection and regional casework relating to already abandoned facilities.

Scope  

This project is designed to provide an overview of the military command centres to control and command the armed forces during the 20th century.  An overarching introductory study will provide a concise summary of the changing high level command structure of the British services during the 20th century, illustrated by diagrams.  Separate studies will then address the command and control of the three main services, the Royal Navy, War Office and Army and the Royal Air Force.  It will also identify similar facilities used by United States armed services and by NATO.   

The study will identify the locations of the command centres, operations rooms, and key communications facilities.  It will highlight command centres that played a significant part in the conduct of operations in the world wars, or were central to Cold War policy at a given point in time.  Where existing buildings have been used for command activities, they will be included in a gazetteer along with any information on special modifications to the structures or associated construction work, such as hutted camps.  It will, however, pay particular attention to sites where purpose-built facilities were constructed, where their internal layout, or architecture, closely reflects the activity of a given command formation.   

The final report will thus contain four separate sections: the introduction and overview; and three sections covering the Naval centres, War Office and Army centres, and those of the RAF.  A list of references and sources will accompany each section.

This page was published on 02/08/2006